Despite the Union outnumbering the Confederates, McClellan was unable to crush Robert E. Lee after failing to pursue him into Virginia. Fifty years ago today, President Lyndon Baines Johnson announced his fateful decision to double the number of U.S. troops in Vietnam. He worked under Adolf Hitler's Third Reich as a leading general and gained fame from his battles in North Africa. You may opt out at any time. Critics say that Franks and senior officials, such as Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, concocted an invasion plan that used too few troops. Opportunistic firms in Asia and Europe have already begun to relocate investments to the United States. The loss of Fort Donelson opened the door to Kentucky and Tennessee to Union forces and marked the beginning of the end of Confederate resistance in the west. 88,594. Eschewing a direct overland march to the Confederate capital of Richmond, McClellan orchestrated an impressive amphibious landing of more than 100,000 troops at Fort Monroe, at the southeast end of the peninsula between the James and York rivers. Necessarily, more is lost to time than is remembered. The American Civil War was a factory for producing bad generals such as Braxton Bragg and Ambrose Burnside. World War I provided a forum for any number of truly horrible commanders to assert themselves. Jessica Chen Weiss, formerly a senior advisor for policy planning at the State Department under the Biden administration, makes the case that the United States is becoming consumed by competition with China, a strategy that could lead to dangerous conflict. Elmo Zumwalt was a U.S. admiral and commander of American naval forces in Vietnam. Sun Wu Sun Zi, or Sun Tzu, was a prominent military general during the Spring and Autumn Period (770-476 BC) who is always regarded as one of the greatest military strategists in China and even the World. While there are plenty of books that analyze the keys to success, The Worst Military Leaders in History offers lessons of failure to avoid. This piece originally appeared in The National Interest https://nationalinterest.org/blog/reboot/6-worst-military-leaders-ever-167526. Not only is Sorley a third-generation graduate of West Point a Vietnam veteran and a historian, but he worked for Westmoreland as well. At the Battle of Gaugamela, he helped make Alexander great by losing half his army to the Macedonian upstart. But there was something that not even the factories of New York and Chicago could produce, and that was time. Russias war is receiving critical assistance from authoritarian regimes around the world. Brock, sensing an opportunity, advised an immediate march on Fort Detroit. The resulting Peninsular Campaign (AprilJuly 1862) was a marvel of planning but something of a farce in execution. He deprived the South Vietnamese of modern weaponry, giving U.S. and other allied forces priority for issue of the new M-16 rifle and other advanced military wherewithal. And how might that be impacting the world? He was found guilty of 11 counts, and only the intervention by Pres. Instead of holding a natural defense line around Pyongyang, which would have given the United Nations control of most of the peninsula, the UN troops retreated all the way back into South Korea in a humiliating reverse for U.S. power after the crushing victory of World War II. This week marks exactly one year since Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his troops to invade Ukraine. When the Germans shattered his troops and his reputation at Kasserine Pass in Tunisia in early 1943, Fredendall was only a major general and a corps commander. The Battle of the Teutoburg Forest darkened Emperor Augustus remaining years and he was heard, upon occasion, to moan, Quinctilius Varus, give me back my Legions!, Notable mention: George Custer, Joseph Hooker, Ambrose Burnside, Charles Cornwallis, John II of France, Top 10 Utterly Bizarre Things Banned In China, Top 10 Military Bases Linked To UFOs (That Aren't Area 51), 10 Bizarre Military Inventions That Almost Saw Deployment, 10 Futuristic Sci-Fi Military Technologies That, 10 Awesome French Military Victories You've Never Heard Of, 10 Oddities That Interrupted Military Battles, Top 10 Top-Level Domains That Caused Controversies, 10 Controversial Toys You Might Already Have in Your Home, Ten Absolutely Vicious Fights over Inherited Fortunes, 10 Female Film Pioneers Who Shaped the Movies, Ten True Tales from Americas Toughest Prison, 10 Times Members of Secretive Societies and Organizations Spilled the Beans, 10 Common Idioms with Unexpectedly Dark Origins, 10 North American Animals with Misplaced Reputations, 10 Japanese Weapons Invented Too Late To Win World War II, 10 Ways The History Of Thanksgiving Is Nothing Like You Imagined, 10 Great Buildings That Were Not Built Quite Well Enough. McClellan was removed from command immediately after. But the award for the biggest Persian loser goes to Darius III. Westmorelands own book about himself gives some indication of how he would react to this more recent one. James K. Polk upon the outbreak of war between Mexico and the U.S. and offered to become an agent for the U.S. (again). What was your impression of the man when you were working for him? Westmorelands general mistake: severely underestimating the Communists. 1 Erwin Rommel Erwin Johannes Eugen Rommel, popularly known as the Desert Fox, was a German field marshal of World War II. With the Little Corporal running everything, Europe might have become a very different place. Outstanding commanders such as George H. Thomas, Phil Sheridan, and William Tecumseh Sherman routinely bested their Confederate opponents. The British blockaded the port at Cdiz with a numerically inferior force, and Villeneuve, upon learning that he was to be relieved of command, rashly struck out at Nelsons fleet. 4. . Yes, eminently. They kept it as a war trophy, exhibiting the leg at. What will another year of war look like? He effectively pledged to become an agent for the U.S. but found that he had been deposed upon his return to Mexico. Xi Jinpings signature foreign policy is a shadow of its former self.. Consul Gnaeus Mallius Maximus was Caepios superior officer, but Caepio refused to obey Maximus or even put his forces into a shared camp with him. But the inducements encourage U.S. companies to invest only at homenot elsewhere. Contrarily, I would not so stigmatize another important player often criticized by others, Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge. Antonio de Padua Mara Severino Lpez de Santa Anna. In a war that saw more than its share of unskilled politically appointed generals, Pillow was arguably the worst on either side. By the end of the conflict, America had unleashed the equivalent of 640 Hiroshima-sized atomic bombs on Vietnam. Its quite exclusive: combat leaders who had the fate of their people in their hands and squandered it all. The Vietnam Conflict Extract Data File of the Defense Casualty Analysis System (DCAS) Extract Files contains records of 58,220 U.S. military fatal casualties of the Vietnam War. Frederick C. Weyand was a U.S. Army General who was the last commander of American military operations in the Vietnam War from 1972 to 1973. His 1812 campaign against Russia ended in complete disaster. The Worst Civil War Generals on the Confederacy Confederate Maj. Gen. Gideon Pillow. Although he eventually disavowed Hitler, by that point Ludendorff had become so deeply involved with mysticism that few took him seriously. Watch the conversation or read the condensed transcript. Wrote Kevin Buckley in a scathing review, From the beginning Westmoreland probably expected to write a memoir of victory similar to Crusade in Europeand the defeat in Vietnam has not deterred him from this.. Hull was taken prisoner by the British and was court-martialed upon his return to the United States. The Cimbri destroyed Caepios force and, emboldened by their success, marched on Maximuss camp. Westmoreland told him, "We're killing these people at a ratio of 10 to 1.". While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Perhaps Mao would have intervened anyway. And if they not only fail to deliver, but wind up sinking their own side in the process, and change history, they earn a spot in the Hall of Military Shame. George Custer at the Little Big Horn and Lord Chelmsford at the Battle of Isandlwana leap to mind. 3. Instead the enemy proved willing to absorb horrifying losses and keep fighting. Like it or not, the U.S. military would become the governing authority. 13,091. The world over, countries are embarking on ambitious projects of industrial policy. The War of the Triple Alliance devastated Paraguay. Little Mac would prove himself to be a superb organizer who kept his army well supplied, efficiently run, and happy. These Vietnam War photos taken by U.S. Army photographers reveal a side of the conflict that few people have ever seen. It would be nice if all American generals were great. Varus placed his legions in a position where their fighting strengths would be minimized and that of the Germanic Cherusci tribesman maximized. If it couldn't or wouldn't govern the country, who would? General Harold K. Johnson was an authentic battlefield hero, and as noted above was fundamentally at odds with Westmorelands approach, but he was not in the chain of command. The deplorable conduct of Charles Lee at the Battle of Monmouth has been immortalized by Lin-Manuel Miranda, and Benedict Arnolds name is synonymous with traitorous behavior. After early success in the Mexican War for Independence, the rest of his career didnt pan out the way he would have liked. Casey was an Army insidera four-star general and the son of the highest-ranking American casualty of the Vietnam War, a division commander who was killed in a July 1970 helicopter crash. Not later than the autumn of 1966 the leaders of both services involved in fighting the ground war in VietnamArmy Chief of Staff General Harold K. Johnson and Marine Commandant General Wallace Greeneboth saw Westmorelands approach as fatally flawed and agreed on a viable alternative. These operations were designed to seek out enemy forces and engage them in decisive battle. Some would say that failure on the battlefield warrants censure. His poor tactical decisions resulted in his army being routed by a smaller force of Redcoats and Loyalists at the Battle of Camden in South Carolina in 1780. And how might that be impacting the world? Grachev once said that only an incompetent commander would order tanks into the streets of central Grozny, where they would be vulnerable. Yet near the end of the war he did exactly that. The Russian president got many things wrong about invading Ukrainebut not everything. [i] However, the list is subjective, and open to debate, as top 10 lists tend to be. But he was overly cautious by nature. Some staff officers who briefed him one-on-one at deskside were dismayed when Westmoreland occupied himself by signing photographs of himself, one after another, during their presentations. Would he be upset if he were alive to read this book today? - 1 Best: 1996 Chicago Bulls. How might Vietnam or Iraq have turned out if a George Washington, a Ulysses Grant or a George Patton had been in command? After his performance at Belmonta spectacular success by Pillow standardshe was tasked with the defense of Fort Donelson, a key strongpoint on the Mississippi River. His was one of just two French ships of the line to escape the destruction of the French fleet there. Explore the benefits included in your subscription. Here are five of America's worst generals: Great generals have great talents, and usually egos and ambitions to match. 10. I flew into Vietnam in June 1968 as a young . Grachev publicly promised to swiftly crush the Chechen separatist forces in a couple of hours with a single airborne regiment. He led the disastrous storming of Grozny while drunk after celebrating his birthday on January 1st. Some 15,000 talents of gold (the so-called Gold of Tolosa) had vanished under his watch, never to be recovered. It was anotherhistory-changingevent, the birth of a truly exceptional nation. But Franks, who commanded the invasion, made a bad situation worse. Grenada (1983) 3. But Gates could have doomed the American Revolution. Argentina, Brazil, and the Brazilian puppet government in Uruguay formed an alliance, and on May 1, 1865, they declared war on Paraguay. Nor is being a bad battlefield commander, by itself, sufficient to make the cut. After achieving moderate success in Libya and Ethiopia, the Butcher of Ethiopia became Commander-in-Chief of the Italian Royal Armys General Staff and of Italian North Africa at the start of World War II. Westmoreland was on a treadmill. Pillow suffered slightly more casualties than Grant in the engagement, which possibly makes the Battle of Belmont the high point of Pillows military career. Luckily for the colonists, the Empire also had Cornwallis, a peer of the realm and truly pitiful commander. But beyond the goals of one leader in Moscow, it is also clear that Ukraine has suffered horrors of a historic nature. Defining that is like defining a bad meal. Alas, call it the laws of probability or just cosmic karma, but every nation produces bad generals as well as good onesand America is no exception. Santa Anna, a lifetime gambler, was known for his risk taking in battle, but also his brutality. Along with Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, Montgomery is the most celebrated of British generals and had the ego to match, or even exceed, his reputation. But with that kind of advantage in troops and firepower, who wouldnt? Delivered Monday-Friday. standing, Ukrainians are determined to keep fighting, and the West has so far stayed resolute in its support of Ukraine. That may have been true in the east (the worst of the Union generals in that theater rates his own entry on this list), but in the west it was a much different affair. Overseas during World War II he had limited line duty (16 months of battalion command, then 13 months in staff positions) and of 14 months of command during the Korean War and its immediate aftermath he spent eight months in reserve in Japan and only six months in Korea, and that during the mostly static final months of the war. Yes, Westmoreland was the general who lost Vietnam. Darius did not take the field against Alexander until a year and a half after Granicus, at the Battle of Issus. By the way, here is the first review I have seen of Sorley's new biography of Westmoreland, which I read in galleys last summer, and enjoyed. 151. Grachev has also been linked to corruption among the higher ranks of the military, specifically the assassination of journalist Dmitry Kholodov. Even a string of bad days does not guarantee entry. Darius quickly lost everything and became nothing but a fugitive. 10. Hull responded by ordering the evacuation of Fort Dearborn, and the garrison was promptly massacred by a Potawatomi war band upon leaving the fort. Caepio may have been a terrible general, but he was apparently an exceptional thief. What a Lovely War and then in the 1989 television comedy series Blackadder Goes Forth. The Second Battle of the Somme was the first of a series of successful German offensives, but Ludendorff had failed to integrate these tactical victories into a broader strategic plan. While there were a host of bad generals serving on both sides during the American Civil Warmostly on the Union side unfortunatelythe one that usually gets the most credit for dragging out the war as long as he did is Union General George McClellan. Darius again was the first to flee the battle, abandoning all of his soldiers and his property to be taken by Alexander. On the other side of the trenches in World War I was Erich Ludendorff, commanding the armies of Germany. Yes, the landing at Inchon unhinged the initial North Korean offensive. Registration for summer courses begins March 18, 2023 and ends June 7, 2023. But the worst of all was McClellan, the so-called "Young Napoleon" from whom Lincoln. He lacked the schooling and relevant experience to understand the war and devise a viable approach to prosecuting it. History: Military History. Answer (1 of 4): The former Cham general/leader Che Bong Nga was killed in the battle against the enemy Dai Viet (old Vietnam) but Che Bong Nga was LUCKY to be mentioned by the enemy Dai Viet historians to allow people to remember him. And what then? Download the new FP mobile app to read anytime, anywhere. Of course, that is what they did when Ludendorff pushed for the use of unrestricted submarine warfare against Allied shipping. General Earle Wheeler was essentially a staff officer with virtually no troop leading experience, much less combat acumen. Todays list: The top ten reasons Gen. Westmoreland lost the war in Vietnam. 6. Although Westmoreland denied it, he imposed a ceiling on the reported number of enemy by instructing his intelligence officers to adhere to a command position of not more than 300,000, even though newly acquired and more accurate data developed in his own headquarters then indicated a much higher figure. Gen. Charles Cornwallis. Its quite exclusive: combat leaders who had the fate of their people in their hands and squandered it all. On the night of August 15, 1812, Tecumseh led his forces across the Detroit River, and Brock followed the next morning. Thus the progress Westmoreland claimed in racking up huge body counts did nothing to win the war. But then MacArthur thrived on controversy like bread thrives on yeast. Santa Anna liked to call himself the Napoleon of the West. And, like Napoleon, he squandered it all in one grand campaign. Despite Lincoln's pleas for aggressive action, his Army of the Potomac moved hesitantly, its commander McClellan convinced himself that the Southern armies vastly outnumbered him when logic should have told him that it was the North that enjoyed an abundance of resources. Born in 1901 in Quang Binh Province (part of North Vietnam), Diem was the son of a well-educated mandarin (Vietnamese civil servant who took part in running the country) who served as the Minister of Rites and Grand Chamberlain to Emperor Thanh-Thai (1889-1907). Others would say that it is not victory, but success in fulfilling a mission that counts. Is the Biden administrations China policy too hawkish? After eight years at Foreign Policy, here are the ten most popular Best Defense posts. All the enemys losses were quickly made up. The man who appealed for Varus help was Arminius, a Romanized Germanic prince. The Worst Military Leaders in History is meant to be thought-provoking, and it surely is that." ARMY Magazine "Few subjects get military historians and history buffs talking like a debate over the best military leaders in history. Thus, on July 1, 1916, Haig ordered his men to go over the top at the First Battle of the Somme, and 20,000 of them had the audacity to die almost immediately (there were 60,000 total British casualties on the first day of the attack). Soon after declaring himself dictator of Mexico, rebels who opposed the Mexican dictatorship created three new republics, one of them being the Republic of Texas. The problem begins with the fact that nobody in the chain of command was really competent to critique Westmorelands performance. Driven into exile in 1845, he contacted U.S. Pres. Two years later, he lost a leg fighting the French. But the worst of all was McClellan, the so-called "Young Napoleon" from whom Lincoln and the Union expected great things. While Hull dithered, Brock captured Fort Michilimackinac, establishing British control of the Straits of Mackinac. This is, obviously, a problematic quality when ones title is general-in-chief of the entire Union army. He retreated to Malta but was captured when that island fell to the British. Westmoreland established a headquarters known as MACV Forward in the northern provinces of South Vietnam and put his deputy, General Creighton Abrams, in charge, placing him over the Marines and also the Army forces in that region. The Persians had a mixed record against the Greeks. 7. When all is said and done, it doesnt matter how nice, brave, courageous, gutsy, loyal, or brilliant commanders theyve been. Many of the charges leveled against him have also been laid at the feet of . Darius never showed up for the first battle and defeat (Battle of Granicus) because he didnt see Alexander as much of a threat to his empire. General Westmorelands close associate, General William DePuy, later admitted the futility of the Westmoreland way of war. A very influential visitor, Senator "Fritz" Hollings from Westmoreland's home state of South Carolina, had warned him about reliance on such ratios. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. Alexander went on to march halfway across Asia, creating an empire, albeit short-lived, that changed the history of three continentsnot bad for an ancient millennial. Michael Ray oversees coverage of European history and military affairs for Britannica. How might Vietnam or Iraq have turned out if a George Washington, a Ulysses Grant or a George Patton had been in command? If Gates had been in command, we might be paying for our groceries with shillings and pence. Indeed they are brave and proud, but their standards, tactics, and lack of command supervision throughout their ranks requires improvement in the national interest. And, he added, I would be less than frank if I did not say that I feel somewhat insecure with the situation in Quang Tri province, in view of my knowledge of their shortcomings. Although Nelson was killed in combat at Trafalgar, Villeneuve outlived him only by six months. He underestimated the enemys staying power, maintaining that if he could inflict enough casualties the communists would lose heart and cease their aggression against South Vietnam. They kept it as a war trophy, exhibiting the leg at county fairs. Grant had encircled the fort. Here's What You Need To Remember:The Soviets saw the American humiliation in Vietnam as a turning point. As the commander of U.S. forces in Vietnam, he faced a two-front war, an insurgency in the South and an invading army from the North. On September 2, 1945, hours after the Japanese signed their unconditional surrender in World War II, communist leader Ho Chi Minh proclaimed the independent Democratic Republic of Vietnam, hoping. Hundreds of thousands died of disease. It was a humiliating baptism of fire for the U.S. Army in Europe, and more important, caused British commanders to dismiss their Yank allies as amateur soldiers for the rest of the war. The Summer 2023 term begins June 1, 2023 and ends August 24, 2023. Varus was stationed with three of his legions, the 17th, 18th and 19th when news arrived of a revolt growing in the Rhine area. Sorley skillfully uses Westmoreland's own words to show time and again his duplicity at worst and his lack of touch with reality at best. NEW FOR SUBSCRIBERS: He overestimated the American peoples patience and tolerance of friendly losses. In 1975, when the Vietnam War ended, the Vietnamese army had only 36 generals, but by 2018, peace-time Vietnam had 415 military officers holding general ranks. Still, it is his world-changing defeat at Yorktown that merits memorializing. The 5 Worst Generals in U.S. History. He gritted his teeth and wore down the Confederacy with incessant attacks until the South could take no more.